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The Best Paella Recipe

Easy and tasty recipe - Paella is packed with flavour and as long as you use the correct rice you can't really go wrong. Lots of people like to leave the shells on the tiger prawns, which I know looks more impressive, but I can't be doing with things on my plate that can't be eaten!

You may wish to add more shellfish than I did but I had to keep mine very low key as Paul would have a fit as I had a job convincing him about the squid!The long list of ingredients may look long but please don't be put off of making paella as it's so good 😋

Yield: 2-3Author: Jan Bennett

Jans Paella

You may wish to add more shellfish than I did but I had to keep mine very low key as Paul (the husband) would have a fit as I had a job convincing him about the squid!

ingredients:

130g Spanish Chorizo - cut into thin slices

small handful - pancetta, cubed

3 fat cloves garlic - finely chopped

1 large onion - finely diced

1 red bell pepper - diced

1 green bell pepper - sliced

1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves - use nice soft ones

a good pinch or two of dried red chilli flakes

275g paella rice (Calasparra) Spanish short-grain

1 heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika

125ml of dry white wine

*make up 800 ml chicken stock - using 2 Knorr stock cubes although you should only want about 600ml

a good pinch of saffron strands

4 skinless and boneless chicken thighs - cut into bite sized pieces

a good handful of cooked and cooled peas

8 baby tomatoes - halved

some good olive oil

You will also need:

1 more clove garlic - squashed with the back of a knife

10 jumbo raw prawns

2 or 3 baby squid - cleaned and chopped into rings

2 tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper

instructions

*Please note the saffron strands are to be added to the chicken stock which must be hot when you add it to the rice.

Heat a very small amount of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the chorizo and pancetta and fry until crisp, then remove and set aside.

Using the same pan without washing it - add a little amount of olive oil and gently fry the chicken pieces till they are almost cooked and then remove and set aside.

In the same pan - again without washing it, add a little more olive oil and heat before adding the garlic, onion and pepper and cook until softened but not coloured.

Now add the thyme, chilli flakes and paella rice, and stir until all the grains of rice are nicely coated and glossy.

Add the paprika and dry white wine and when it is bubbling nicely, pour in about 600ml of the hot chicken stock into which you have added the saffron strands.

Give it all a good stir and cook for about 10 minutes.

*You can add a little more chicken stock if you need it - I used 600ml and mine was fine.

Now add the almost cooked chicken back to the pan along with the peas and tomatoes and continue to cook gently for another 10 minutes - stirring now and then.

By now the rice should be tender and most of the liquid soaked up.

In a separate pan, heat the remaining oil with the crushed garlic clove in a separate pan and add the prawns. Fry quickly for a minute or two till they turn pink and then add them to the paella.

Now fry the squid rings in the same pan - they will only take a minute or so max. Now add that to the paella too.

Hi and welcome I'm Jan. I love cooking and of course eating. It has to be said I do like a nice kitchen gadget or fifty. I'm concerned I might be a bit of a gadget hoarder and also a food shopaholic. Click on my photo to read more!